#I just hate the way that whole discourse seemed manufactured

[castlevaniaobssessed]

Tyla discourse is so........dull....talking ooo she so entitled...we don't even know her music like that...why she need help with the award?....like WHO CARES!!!...SO WHAT??!!!!......literally one of the tiktokers I liked who was so nonchalant...got so heated....and I'm like??

[alacants]

Okay feel free to leave this in the depths of your ask box haha but I had to get it out. I don't think Sincaraz have a compelling dynamic at all? IDK the whole "Fedal 2.0" thing just feels manufactured a bit by ATP marketing. I simply feel there is a lack of matching each other's freak therefore I am obviously going to dump some rarepair discourse in your inbox sorry

Jannik seems like someone who's only really comfortable with the few people he's really close to & so in Fic Land I think that translates most compellingly to a friends to lovers thing with Matteo or Jack. Alternatively I think Janholger enemies to lovers is so fun. Angst/sexual tension of your rightful "destiny" on tour being "stolen" etc etc. Great hate sex potential.

I know Carlos pining over Jannik is a popular take but to be honest I think Carlos acts around Jannik the same way he acts around every man he meets (cuddly golden retriever) & people only notice it with Jannik because they're direct rivals. I honestly think the most fun Carlos ships are the more unexplored ones. Carlos & Grigor could be good (how are there no fics for them yet?). Or Ben? They vibe on the same silly level

dying, poor anon, based on the back-to-back asks you've been holding this in for a while, huh. re: your first ask, this is a safe space in the sense that i'm not going to respond with "but ACTUALLY it's REAL." at the same time you did just come to a known yapper with a prompt that is implicitly about metanarratives in sports fandoms.

because, i mean, that's the thing. this is a sports fandom. full of sports fans. the narratives on the court aren't just a vehicle for the personalities off the court—they're why we're here. and love it or hate it sincaraz is one of THE narratives. partly because, yeah, tennisworld is desperate for the next fedal.¹ but also partly because they play insane and unbelievable tennis against each other. we are always talking about miami and indian wells because no matter how many times you watch those points they never get more normal. 

like, the "carlos pining" take—you're coming at it from the perspective of how they interact backstage, so to speak. others are coming at it from the perspective of carlos talking up jannik as his biggest rival for two straight years, when he was the youngest no. 1 in history and jannik was Just Some Guy. "because they're direct rivals" IS the answer. (i know it wasn't actually a question.)

this is obviously not everyone's reason for shipping it or the only reason they ship it.² (and beloved mutuals please do NOT start an indirect back-and-forth through my inbox of "but actually carlos DOES treat jannik differently here's 39841038490 specific pieces of evidence" because i have a real job to do today.) just, it's not incidental to the appeal. it is the appeal.

just cut a gazillion words about early fedal and the future of tennis. ok your real message here is that the things you find most compelling have been underaddressed by fandom. this is fair. as someone who enjoys several ships that have nothing to do with rivalry or metanarratives and everything to do with They Just Really Like Each Other, i get where you're coming from. honest. i think with jannik/matteo in particularly you're looking at a promising future, like, we're in a shipping boom right now! whether that will translate to fic is an open question. (i feel like the jannik/jack miniboom didn't result in that much fic but i also didn't go looking because i am not compelled by jack draper. sorry beloved mutuals.) i believe in the power of matteo's face to deliver but i think maybe promptfest could be an early bellwether—there were quite a few jannik/matteo prompts.

(i'll also take this opportunity to note that i doooo hope that promptfest will produce some rarepair fills and prompt amnesty is ongoing. once again please don't flood the form with 20 prompts but if you want to drop one or two for a ship you can't believe is missing from the table…)

size is a challenge here. if the current iteration of tennis fandom were bigger sincaraz would still be the main course but at least you'd have other things to eat as well. rarepair would mean "ugh there's only a dozen fics in the tag" instead of "ugh there are zero fics in the tag." however that is somewhat out of our hands.

so the real, actual solution is… be the change you wish to see. this is not a very satisfying answer. believe me. beLIEVE me. i understand. but after MONTHS OF LABOR³ i'm starting to see the fruits of my rareishpair efforts and i believe you can too. take your character insights and flesh them out a bit, string a couple anecdotes into a narrative (optional), add some illustrative visuals, boom. mayafritzes' janholger post totally sold me and i think a lot of other people! (would loooove to read jannik/holger/invisible presence of carlos alcaraz fic.) of the ships you mention i would particularly enjoy seeing you or someone else do this for ben/carlos. :D if you can seed the ground with a fic that also helps. 

sorryyyyy i realize you're just venting and not asking for either deep analysis or action items. this is the risk of coming to my askbox though. 😔 best of luck finding food that is better suited to your palate, i hope you don't have to cook it ALL for yourself. :(

--

¹ this is a strategy that is destined to fail btw. which makes it especially appealing (meta)narratively. they built a statue of us / and they put it on a mountaintop…

² re: jannik: i am actually totally on the same page with you in that i think he VERY much wouldn't be comfortable around carlos. the difference is that i think that just makes the fic potential more interesting. SORRYYYYYYYY.

³ obviously this is exaggeration for comedic effect… to a point. people here were shipping it already and it's the fact that i did see a brief discussion in the ferru tag that finally pushed me get on tumblr instead of just pour all my thoughts directly into bff texts. but the discussion had yet to produce fic. so, rolls up sleeves. hasn't escaped me that fic #5 is yet to appear tho.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt- WWX didn’t die, instead was held captive by JGGY for the 16 years

ao3

“ – his sword has sealed itself. What better evidence that the Yiling Patriarch is dead and gone?”

I’m not, though, Wei Wuxian thought fuzzily. I’m not gone.

Except when he tried to open his eyes, he couldn’t quite manage it. Why couldn’t he open his eyes? Where was he, anyway?

(Dead and gone –)

He remembered the backlash, suddenly, and shuddered. His qi revolting from inside of him, ghostly hands reaching for him, tearing at him – the complete loss of control – pain –  

Am I dead?

Yes, actually, that seemed pretty likely. That backlash…no one could have survived it, not even him.

(Arrogant as always, Wei Wuxian. Haven’t you seen what become of that?)

Okay, I’m dead, he told himself, and it rang true. But that doesn’t answer the question of where am I?

(Questions like “what am I” could be saved for later.)

He could hear, anyway. He wasn’t sure how, but he could. Maybe he could even see?

He tried to see.

He could see.

Blurrily, and not quite right, but he could.

There were people standing around him. The Jin sect, judging by their clothing, and some others – they were arguing over something. Spoils of war…

Hey! He complained. That’s not a spoil of war! That’s my stuff!

Actually, on second thought, maybe they were right. Sure, it was his stuff – was someone trying to lay claim to his shopping list? – but there had been a war, and he’d lost, and that meant his stuff was spoils.

“The greatest contribution, next to the Jiang sect, is ours. Suibian belongs to the Jin sect,” someone said, interrupting Wei Wuxian’s train of thought, and put their hand on him.

Wait.

What?

I’m Suibian?

No, something that wasn’t quite a voice suddenly said. I’m Suibian. You’re Wei Wuxian. Keep it straight.

Wei Wuxian would have gaped, if he’d still had a mouth. Suibian? You – talk?

There was a feeling of amusement. Possibly a bit of mockery. No, definitely mockery, possibly a lot of it.

Is Wei Wuxian’s sword…kind of a dick?

Suibian sniggered.

What am I doing here? Wei Wuxian asked.

I pulled in your souls and spirits when you died, his sword said. They were already setting up soul-summoning rituals for you, and it wouldn’t have gone well for you if they caught you.

No, it wouldn’t have.

You saved me?

I’m your sword, aren’t I? What else am I here for, especially since you no longer wield me?

Wei Wuxian felt a stab of guilt. He’d never once thought about explaining himself to his sword, though in his defense he didn’t know his sword might have feelings on the subject. About that –

Yes, yes, I know, Suibian said. Chenqing explained the whole thing.

…my flute? You talk to my flute?

Please, Suibian said. We’re spiritual weapons. Of course we talk.

Isn’t that only supposed to happen for the weapons of sages? Wei Wuxian argued. Not, you know, run-of-the-mill ones. Er, no offense. Not that you’re not awesome, but I, personally, am very far from a sage.

At least you admit it, Suibian teased. And no, I think that’s just when everyone can start hearing us. We talk amongst ourselves long before that…sometimes I’m jealous of the Nie sect’s sabers. They can talk to their masters a lot earlier than we can.

They can? Even, what, shit he didn’t know any Nie, uh, Nie Huaisang?

…Nie Huaisang doesn’t count and you know it. His saber’s pretty funny, though. Lazier than a sloth.

That sounded about right.

Baxia’s terrifying, though.

That…also sounded right.

Okay, Wei Wuxian said, tearing his mind away from the fascinating question of why the Nie sabers in specific might be able to communicate with their wielders sooner than most and also what that might mean. There were more important things to discuss. Uh, thanks for saving my life. Death? Thanks for saving my souls, anyway.

Don’t embarrass me with gratitude.

Wei Wuxian would have grinned if he’d had a mouth. Yeah, sure, whatever.

They both sniggered at that.

Anyway, what now? I thought I heard…we’re sealed?

How else am I supposed to hide the fact that your souls and spirits are in here? Suibian asked. If someone wields us, they’d know. Wielders always know.

Wei Wuxian didn’t have anything to say about that. He had always known that Suibian was – Suibian. He could have picked up his sword in the dark and known it was his own, rather than another’s.

He just hadn’t known that Suibian had also known.

He’d even known that Suibian had a personality, that he’d – she’d – it –

Hey, do you have a gender? Wei Wuxian asked, distracted. Are you a boy sword or a girl sword –

I am a sword, Suibian said. Please leave your weird human reproduction techniques out of it.

It’s not about reproduction! It’s…hm. Maybe it is about reproduction? I don’t know, I’ve never really questioned it. Something to think about later on. More importantly – what now?

What do you mean?

What do we do now?

I’m not sure I understand.

Wei Wuxian would have rolled his eyes if he’d had them. What is our next step? You rescued me, and now we’re being bartered around as spoils of war. What’s the plan? What do we do now?

Suibian really didn’t seem to understand.

Well, you rescued me! What were you intending happen after that?

Nothing, Suibian said. I rescued you. That was the complete action. There was nothing after that.

You didn’t make a plan?

I’m a sword. We get wielded by others; we don’t – or at least, rarely – take initiative on our own. I’m not a Nie saber or something; I’m not going to hop up one day and go out hunting for evil on my own.

…is that a thing Nie sabers do? Wei Wuxian asked. On second thought, don’t answer that, I don’t have time to process it at the moment. Listen, now that you’ve rescued me, we still have to do something, right? We can’t just sit around on a shelf somewhere in the Jin sect as a trophy!

Suibian’s silence was almost a little pitying.

We can’t do that, Wei Wuxian repeated. Right?  

They were, in fact, placed on a Jin shelf, at least in the beginning.

It was a prominent place, meant to show him off – show it off, really, since no one knew Wei Wuxian was in there.

Wei Wuxian hated it.

He hated the way Jin Guangshan smirked at the sword, very obviously thinking about how he’d ground Wei Wuxian under his heel. He hated the fact that the man was using his research to develop demonic cultivation into something truly monstrous and vile, the reports that were delivered to Jin Guangshan within Wei Wuxian’s hearing enough to make his stomach turn if he still had one.

Reports of entire sects murdered, men women children all, brutally slaughtered as experiments in tests – each one delivered with a calm smile and no regret.

Wei Wuxian hated that.

He hated, too, the fact that his demonic cultivation, that new invention of his, was treated as nothing but a stepping stone, a tool used to help the Jin sect gain power and ascendance over the other sects – that was what this had always been about, he realized belatedly, too late to do any good.

He’d always known that Jiang Cheng had only cast him out of the Jiang sect because of pressure from the rest of the cultivation world, but somehow he hadn’t realized that that pressure was manufactured, that it was intentional, that he’d always been meant to either yield or die because the Jin sect wanted his power and his Tiger Seal and his secrets. Even if he’d still had a golden core, even if he’d set aside demonic cultivation the way they asked, it still would have ended up the same way in the end.

He’d given the Jiang sect power and influence – and the Jin sect didn’t like that.

But what Wei Wuxian hated most of all, above even the sickening reports of the Jin sect’s crimes, was –

“You look well, Sect Leader Jiang,” Jin Guangshan said, blatantly lying.

Jiang Cheng’s eyes were rimmed with red, whether with tears or an incipient qi deviation, and he stared vacantly at Jin Guangshan as if he didn’t quite understand his meaning. He’d lost weight, his cheekbones sharper than they’d been since the worst days of the war when they hadn’t had enough food, and he didn’t seem entirely – sane.

What happened to him? Wei Wuxian demanded. He might be the one who was living a half-life, but Jiang Cheng looked it.

He’s all alone, Suibian said. Like a sword that hasn’t been drawn in years, not even to be sharpened –

I said I was sorry about no wielding you, okay! But no, seriously, what have the Jin sect been doing to him?

Why are you asking me? I’ve been here, same as you.

“Stop the small talk,” Jiang Cheng finally said, interrupting Jin Guangshan’s odious discourse about the general state of the cultivation world, the satisfactory improvement in trade, and even the weather. “We both know why I’m here.”

Jin Guangshan stopped talking, and smiled his viper’s smile that Wei Wuxian wanted to scrub off his face. Preferably with the flat of Suibian’s blade. “It’s a very impudent request, you know,” he said, leaning back. “One could even say that it’s offensive that you even suggested it.”

Jiang Cheng stared at him. His knuckles were white from how hard his fists were clenched. “That’s not a no,” he said. His normally sharp voice was dulled. “That’s not a no.”

“It’s not,” Jin Guangshan agreed. “But if you want something from me, you have to give something in return.”

Haven’t you taken enough from him? Wei Wuxian shouted. You forced him to get rid of me, you forced my hand at the Qiongqi Path and led to everything that happened next, you – you – you greedy pig!

Now, now, Suibian said. What have pigs ever done to you?

Jiang Cheng swallowed and closed his eyes. He looked tired – exhausted – broken into pieces. The Jin sect ought to be helping him rebuild, helping him survive, not extorting him for whatever it was they wanted now.

“I understand,” Jiang Cheng said, through thin and bloodless lips.

Don’t do it! Whatever it is they want from you, refuse, it’s not worth it, Wei Wuxian tried to tell him, though he knew Jiang Cheng couldn’t hear him, couldn’t understand. You don’t know what they’re doing in secret, in the dark – if you knew, you’d be disgusted. Horrified. I know you would be. You’d stop them. If you agree to whatever it is that they want, you’ll think that you were complicit in it when you find out about it, no matter if you weren’t. Don’t agree!

But of course Jiang Cheng couldn’t hear him.

“I’m glad you do,” Jin Guangshan said, slippery and slimy even as he pretended to sound paternal, and Wei Wuxian might learn to hate him even more than he hated Wen Chao. He put his hand on Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, squeezed it, and Jiang Cheng let him – yes, Wei Wuxian could easily learn to hate Jin Guangshan, Jin Guangshan and Jin Guangyao and all the rest of them, just as much as the Wen sect. Maybe even more. “I look forward to working together with the Jiang sect in the future.”

What Jin Guangshan wanted – in exchange for granting whatever request it was that Jiang Cheng had that mattered so much to him – wasn’t going to be anything as easy as cooperation, and Wei Wuxian knew it; he knew it and he burned with the knowledge of it.

With the knowledge that he’d left Jiang Cheng to face this alone.

That he’d allowed himself to leave his brother behind because of the Jin sect’s manipulations – that if he’d only trusted Jiang Cheng enough to share with him his weakness, to stand with him rather than apart from him, they could have stood up to the Jin sect, to the world, they could have done something, and instead he’d selfishly thought he could do everything on his own, that he didn’t need anyone, that they would be better off without him than with him –

“Yes,” Jiang Cheng murmured. He looked even more broken now than he’d been before. “As you say.”

Jin Guangshan’s hand, still on Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, tightened. It was visible, which meant that Jin Guangshan’s grip was probably bruising, breaking. “Don’t forget to respect your elders, Sect Leader Jiang. You mustn’t forget your etiquette.”

Wei Wuxian had always respected Jiang Cheng, even when they were children, even when his arrogance refused to admit that there was anyone who could be anywhere near as good as himself, and that respect had only grown over the years. Brave, independent Jiang Cheng, who’d fought so hard to build the Jiang sect back up into something of its own, refusing to yield to fate and allow his inheritance to scatter into the wind –

Watching him kneel to pay homage to a monster, to call him ‘Chief Cultivator’ and agree numbly to support his future proposals – practically giving away his Jiang sect’s independence –

Wei Wuxian wanted to cry.

(Maybe this was what it had all been about. Not his demonic cultivation, not the Tiger Seal, not the power they could give to the Jin sect – this. This display of domination, of oppression; the Jin sect putting the Jiang underfoot.)

Whatever you’re getting for this had better be worth it, Jiang Cheng!

When it was done, Jiang Cheng looked up. “I’ll go now,” he said, throat hoarse as if from keeping himself from screaming – or crying. “I’ll take him – there won’t be any trouble, will there?”

“None whatsoever,” Jin Guangshan said, and smiled. “After all, A-Ling is very young. It’s no hardship to let him be raised a few years by his maternal family, to learn the traditions of the Jiang sect…since after all his poor mother isn’t around to teach him.”

Jiang Cheng barely flinched as he stood to go – he was beyond that – but Wei Wuxian howled in rage and despair.

We have to be able to do something, he begged Suibian. Something – anything! I can’t…this is my fault. If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t have to do this – please!

He had to admit that Jiang Cheng wasn’t wrong, to do what he did. Complicity, future guilt, present humiliation...it was all worth it. For all the future pain it would cause Jiang Cheng, it was worth it – to him, to Wei Wuxian – anything would be worth saving Jiang Yanli’s son.

Nothing has changed, Suibian said, solemn for once. I’m still just a sword. I can seal myself, but I can’t act on my own, not without a wielder.

Then what do I do?

Cultivate, Suibian said. A lot. I’ve been thinking about it: sword spirits are a thing, so are ghosts – it’ll take a while, but if we work at it, you’ll eventually be able to float outside of me. A while after that, you might even be able to manifest to humans. We’re both pretty bright; it shouldn’t take more than a few years.

Years!

Were you expecting this to be easy?

Wei Wuxian thought about Jiang Cheng, gritting his teeth and disregarding his pride to save his nephew; thought about Jin Guangyao smiling peaceably as he reported on the latest atrocities their pet demonic cultivators had caused in the same tone he used to discuss the weather; thought about that poor child, Mo Xuanyu, who’d been dragged into the Jin sect’s pit of vipers –

No, he said. I guess not.

Let’s begin.

[soranis-sunshadow]

Hordak can’t catch a break even on his birthday...

Oh fandom, you really like this sort of drama don’t you? 

A few days ago, on Hordak’s birthday, there was this ‘interesting’ post in the tag – since, apparently it’s impossible to get any peace even on that day.

I was  too tired to answer it at the time after being on call the day before so, here’s my delayed answer to all of that:

First off: this post has this bit in it when asked what that person dislikes about SPOP.

 He doesn’t need to get a redemption and he doesn’t get one in the show. 

None of his actions constitute a redemption arc. The man merely acknowledged his personhood and freed himself from his master and God. That’s what his arc was about: the right to have a personal identity. 

He gave himself a name and wanted to be his own person. That’s it. That’s all he wanted.

The man was merely freed from Prime’s influence- an influence he was born into since he’s been specifically manufactured to serve as a disposable mass produced soldier and worshipper of Prime.

 If the argument that Catra was “forced” to commit crimes and thus she is not completely guilty of them since she was under duress – then the argument doubly holds for a person who has been directly programmed and conditioned to do so under the threat of death or mental rape (purification).\

Even while away from Prime, he was still conditioned to obey and brainwashed by Prime’s cult. He literally knew nothing else – he was not meant to. It’s how indoctrination works.  

Prime’s clones aren’t people to Prime, they are tools. Those clones, while cut off from Prime still want to serve and please him: That’s what Wrong Hordak’s purpose in the show is- to show us just that.

Hordak is not considered “OK”  because Entrapta likes him. Hordak is merely shown – by Entrapta that he could live apart from his cult and have worth outside what Prime tells him he has. 

Just like real life cult victims, he needs an outsider to help him see a way out of the cult. The nature of indoctrination and brainwashing makes it impossible for the brainwashed person to know they are brainwashed unless someone points it out.

Now for my favorite thing:

and

oh and

Oh boy… this makes me just so damn uncomfortable.

To offer a bit of context as to why. I have never been on social media before SPOP or in any fandom and as such, I have never encountered the ‘all men are evil’ discourse that seems to infest these places. It’s been quite a bit of culture shock for me. 

What is it that makes anyone think it is ok to judge a person because of an accident of birth? (being born male)

Why does hate for 50% of the human population get such a free pass on these platforms? Misandry is just as terrible as misogyny. You are being biased against another human because of their gender. I don’t care that males are perceived as ‘privileged’ – that doesn’t make it ok to be terrible to them unprovoked. 

How does hating all men help achieve equity?

Do you realize that this sort of discourse is exactly how you radicalize people against the very cause you are championing? You breed hate and adversity for the rest of us who actually want to to have a discussion on the topic. 

I’m a feminist myself (in a country where feminism is hard-work) and let me tell you, making all men hate us does nothing but push away potential allies and make it a lot harder for our voices to be heard.

Feminism is about equality, not women dominating.

Now onto the second post: the one comparing Catra and Hordak with the question of which of them is a better person. 

This whole war orphans that were personally abducted and tortured into serving the horde HC that some ppl have is really starting to get boorish. This has been going on for more than 6 months. 

I have no idea why everyone thinks he went down chimneys and stealing babies left and right while cackling villainously. The man had a busy schedule of brooding in his lab, wallowing at his inability to use insulated cables and having his device blowing up in his face with the occasional Skype call to Shadow Weaver to see what the Horde is doing. 

And yet, to a part of the fandom, this is what he looked like:

( @bat-burrito​ made this one and it’s glorious) 

And if you don’t believe me about the lab recluse thing, you don’t have to, the show pretty much states it for me. 

and 

+

Hordak is a recluse that stayed in his lab and let the running of the Horde and most operations to Shadow Weaver and later Catra. He did not personally abuse anyone and he is not the origin of the cycle of abuse.

Shadow Weaver was a child grooming manipulative woman before she even joined the Horde – she did this to Micah while she was not “evil” or presumably abused by Hordak.

Even if you want to HC that Hordak abused her somehow, he is still not the one who started the cycle: Horde Prime is. 

The whole fandom seems to forget about the eldritch monstrosity that created a whole army of brainwashed slaves to worship and die for him. Prime is the one that sent Hordak to die and gave him the motivation to try to prove himself worthy of life and love. If you want to point fingers, point them at the origin of all of this. This fandom has a strange Prime blindness. He is never talked about when it comes to being the start of all of this.

If Prime didn’t exist, Hordak wouldn’t exist. If Prime hadn’t sent Hordak off to die, then his clone wouldn’t have accidentally ended up on Etheria. None of the things in the show would have happened.

Adora would have died of exposure in a field, the monarchies on Etheria would have continued as they are and the planet would have continued to exist in despondos. 

He is a dictator, yes. So are the princesses. Monarchies are dictatorships where the ruler is born into power. Hordak gained his through military might while Glimmer was born with hers and enforced it with tradition. I don’t really care to play “who’s the better dictator”. The princesses have their power because of the runestones- magical rocks put there by the First Ones to channel the planet’s magic and use it as a weapon. How come no one talks about that?

Do you think a king/queen keeps their crown without effort or subjugation of their subjects? 

Also, Hordak had never interacted with Catra before SW dragged her before him to be judged. He was indifferent to etherians in general and didn’t seem to care which of them were his underlings so long as the operations were running smoothly. He was more focused on his portal and returning home than on anything else. He did not set out to “ruin lives” or quest for power. What he wanted was to return to his deity and become a mindless part of the whole again – that is as opposite to power hungry as you can get.

Catra was directly abused by Shadow Weaver throughout her childhood. That makes Shadow weaver responsible for 100% of that abuse.

Catra was found in a box by Adora and adopted by Shadow Weaver. Hordak didn’t know or care that she existed.

He is responsible for the war, he is responsible for the war casualties and the property damage. He is not responsible for Shadow Weaver being a terrible person and mother figure.

Again with the orphan thing. We have 5 cadets in the show. 

Adora was found in a field. 

Catra was found in a box. Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio are unexplained. The only lizard ppl we see in the show are in the Horde or the Crimson Wastes. The other two could just as well be the children of some of the soldiers. 

I may harp on about what a bitch Shadow Weaver is – the reason I do so is because she is legitimately terrible to the two girls in her care.

I was the unfavorite growing up, I WAS the Catra in my family who could do no right while my sibling was the golden child. I don’t however hate Shadow Weaver. She is a cartoon character in a show and she does the things she was written to do. Hell, she is a very compelling and believable villain. Her motivations are clear and she is consistent. Her voice actress portrayed her splendidly and her character design is superb. I like her but that doesn’t mean that I don’t acknowledge her role in the story. I don’t however make up parts of the story to make her more evil than she was or treat my headcanons about her as absolute fact. 

Again, sigh: Prime is the worst villain in the show. He is quite literally Nyarlathotep and does this to planets: 

 This to people: 

and this to the people he created to serve, worship and love him: 

How is that not worse?

I love Catra and it genuinely annoys me when people erase her agency or try to paint her as one-dimensional victim. Catra was an antagonist for most of the show and she rocked it! She was 400% more efficient at it than cloneboy. Give the queen some damn respect and recognition! Catra had a lot of agency and her actions moved the plot of the show more than those of the protagonists. (they were mostly reactive).

Catra pulled the lever of the portal in a moment of distress after a breakdown, a Shadow-Weaver related breakdown because that’s how trauma works.

Hordak didn’t make her do it, he didn’t send Catra after Adora either. These were Catra’s choices. They came from a place of hurt but they were her choices still.

The portal was a means of transportation, not a weapon. Building it was not Catra’s mission, it was Hordak’s. He built it so he could contact Prime and either summon him here or go home –whichever course of action Prime wanted. Again, Hordak wanted to go back to this:

...

The only person who knew the device was dangerous was Entrapta and she tried to warn Hordak about it. Catra was the one who stopped her, violently so, then sent her to die on Beast Island- the fate Entrapta saved her from a season ago. Catra then tried to have Hordak open the portal before it was ready.

When he wouldn’t – she pulled the lever herself because that is how desperate she had gotten at that point, to show Shadow Weaver how wrong she was. That is how hurt Catra was by her mother figure���s betrayal and abuse.

Don’t take that away from her. Don’t call it curiosity or naivete or whatever. She knew the portal was dangerous but she wanted to prove Shadow Weaver wrong so badly that she didn’t care at that point. She had been pushed that far. 

Catra’s actions led to Angella’s death but she was not directly responsible for it. She didn’t activate the device to kill Angella, it merely happened accidentally. Catra was however glad it happened and wanted to profit from the aftermath of her death.  

Hordak didn’t care or plan to kill Angella personally. There is no in-show moment where any of that is portrayed. Since he doesn’t care about the specifics of running the horde seem to know what they are conquering at the moment, it seems that that was usually a task reserved for his second in command. 

^ - troop movement ordered by Catra

Hordak doesn’t even know what his own army is doing.

Again with the Hordak “drilling into orphan’s minds”… I seriously doubt that any of them had ever seen him out of his lab or that he came up with the propaganda himself.

Manipulation is more Shadow Weaver’s game not his. For all of Hordak’s faults, he is not deceptive or manipulative. If anything, he is woefully incapable of spotting lies. (it might have something to do with him being born in a society where lies were almost impossible because of the hive mind and Prime being able to browse his thoughts at a whim- as such, it wouldn’t be a skill he would have been able to develop).

Hordak canonically despises deception and lies.  I really don’t understand where this image of a manipulative and cunning Hordak comes from. He wouldn’t be able to plot himself out of a paper bag if his life depended on it.

First off.. S4 Catra was his equal, not his subordinate. Don’t take that away from her. She earned it.

He doesn’t look that threatening here... 

And again:  Prime created the system. He made clone slaves and programmed them to serve. His clones have hardware installed for the express reason to facilitate his control over them. He has a religion in place to make sure their thoughts do not stray from his purpose. I am legitimately boggled by this fandom’s tendency to completely forget about his existence.Does anyone really think that these people that are born “prechipped” and programmed to know nothing but Prime’s Light are really knowledgeable about human morality?

That they would know that conquest is bad when that is the express reason for their creation? 

If I were born in that situation, I’m not sure I would have known any better. Hell, if any of the clones even try to disobey Prime, they would get either mindraped (erased) or killed for the effort. They really have no choice, even if they knew that killing in Prime’s name is wrong (they don’t) they really can’t do anything about it. They have no choice but to be what they were made to be. I find it personally abhorrent when these designer slaves are held accountable for what Prime has made them do.

And to the people that say Hordak was free of Horde Prime once he was stranded on Etheria.. That is not how indoctrination works. The fact that I can’t go to church this Sunday because I’m locked in the house and can’t find the keys doesn’t make me an atheist.

Hordak was serving Prime even on Etheria. He keeps mentioning it to both Entrapta and Catra. He started the war because that’s what he thought Prime wanted of him and that’s what he’s been programmed to do. Personal and informed choice really doesn’t factor into his decision at all.

He is not sympathetic because Entrapta likes him. Notice how I haven’t brought up his relationship with her up to this point?

He is sympathetic because he literally had no choice but to do the things he was indoctrinated into doing. He was build and programmed for it, just like all the other clones. They are not able to deviate from that because of the way Prime functions and rules over them.

There is no point in the show where Hordak relishes over his status as a ruler or the “luxury” it affords him. He does not engage in the same behaviors his progenitor manifests.

There is no point in the show where Hordak relishes over his status as a ruler or the “luxury” it affords him. He does not engage in the same behaviors his progenitor manifests. He attempts to emulate Prime in order to project authority in the only way he knows how but since those are some really big shoes to fill, he is woefully inadequate. 

If Hordak had been power hungry, he would have stayed in despondos and ruled his own faction. Being away from Prime is the most powerful and autonomous he’s ever been and yet, he wants to throw all of that away in order to be a powerless, nameless part of the whole. What Hordak wanted was to be enslaved by Prime because that’s what he had been created for.

“vengeful” – and how did Hordak manifest this vengefulness? Who did he take revenge on in the series?  

“apologize” – when and where in his 3 minutes of screentime would he remember everything after 2 mindwipes, realize that the whole worldview he had since inception is wrong, realize that he had been mistaken into doing the horrible things he did and then go to all of the characters and apologize for it?

Would anyone be convinced of that had it happened in 3 minutes? I’d rather they don’t redeem him than do a shit job at it.

Very true. He’s not a better person. He’s just a person in an impossible situation. Both Hordak and Catra were handed a raw deal, I don’t understand why everyone insists on pitting them against one another. They both did bad things and they were both in horrible situations. The specifics don’t really matter since neither of them would have done the things they did had they been more fortunate.

This is the exact reason for which I don’t hold Cara’s actions against her. Catra’s only model of success was Shadow Weaver. She emulated her abusive mother figure because she had no other example and because she wanted to please that woman. It does not excuse the way Catra acted but it explains it.

I really don’t understand why some people want Catra punished. I’d rather she get love and help. That is what she needs. In time, she will want to do better and be better by herself. She doesn’t need to be forced, heavens know, she’s been forced enough as it is.

They are really different. Catra got an abusive, shitty and violent childhood. Hordak got this:

He was literally robbed of a childhood. 

She was taught by Shadow Weaver that weakness gets you killed. Hordak was not allowed to have emotions to begin with, or thoughts of his own, or a name...

Comparing to victims of abuse to see which one of them is more likable is such a strange concept to me.

Catra was robbed in s5 too. I don’t hold that against her. I  blame it on the writers. S5 could have been a lot better. 

[icouldntresistit]

I still remember your not very recent post: "Should I make a post about why I think the ep. 4 rain convo seems more like a disguised Jikook call out?" Can I ask what you meant? I was waiting for you to tell us about your thoughts but you never did

Sorry, had to go on a pseudo-hiatus for awhile but sure you can ask what I meant. I think some people may have already touched on this by now so I’m not sure how much value it would add around the discourse. My thoughts on this are by no means foolproof and there’s probably some gaping holes in them somewhere, but here’s my take anyway lol.

So there’s a conversation that takes place starting around the 17 minute mark of that episode where they’re talking about the possibility of rain during their next concert. At one point, hyung line laments about dancing too hard and how Jimin and Jungkook are the main ones who do so. What happens from this point (starting around 17:38) seems to be some doublespeak from J-Hope and RM interspersed with random cuts of Jin talking, members looking apprehensive and almost smiling like there’s something that’s not being said (or maybe has been said that didn’t make it to the final cut of the episode.) So, from about 17:05, the conversation goes like this:

*cut*

PD: How was stage B?

Jimin: It was okay- 

J-Hope: Gotta be careful though.

Jimin: -I think we can still dance, but I don’t think we should go too hard.

Someone (can’t make out the voice): Right.

J-Hope: The problem is some of you will dance too hard. 

Jimin: We should keep our toes steady.

*While Jimin is talking, RM turns to J-Hope very quickly with a look that seems kind of out of context based on what’s being said*

J-Hope: Jungkook and Jimin, be careful.

*Camera cuts from Jimin fixing his hat to Jin smirking*

RM: Both of you (speaking to Jimin and Jungkook).

J-Hope, smirking: Keep it under control. We still have a lot of shows left.

Jin: It’s important to be good but safety comes first.

Someone (can’t make out the voice): Okay.

J-Hope, still smiling knowingly: There’s a lot to worry about.

*Camera lingers on J-Hope who looks like he just heard a bad joke and is pulling his hat down over his face to hide his smile*

They talk about it some more but the part I found strange pretty much ends here. So, at first glance a couple things stood out to me about this scene:

They’re talking about the rain as if they’ve never experienced rain during a performance before this concert. On the one hand, I can see why given they hadn’t been rained out on that particular tour, but on another it’s just strange that they would be having this conversation about being careful of the rain for what seems to be the first time in their career. Either way, I can chalk the entire existence of this conversation up to needing content/conflict for the documentary.

This one is more a comment on the whole documentary but it is cut up in that new-agey style of filmmaking where footage seems to be taken out of its original context to create a particular story-like effect on camera. There’s a bunch of cuts in that scene that allude to some footage being edited out. Whether or not that footage contains conversations about Jimin and Jungkook particularly is up in the air. So I’ll chalk up the shifty editing to the editors trying to make a product that tells a certain story, even if that certain story diverges from reality.

Jin and J-Hope’s non-verbal reactions are very strange given the context of the conversation. Jin is staring between Jimin and Jungkook (makes sense, the convo at that point was about them) but he’s looking on with this knowing smile. And J-Hope just looks straight up exasperated at times. He looks like he’s nervous/embarrassed and pulls his hat down over his face like so. At one point RM looks at J-Hope with a similar smile as Jin’s. I’ll chalk this one up to those 3 having an inside joke that maybe the audience isn’t in on?

Now this one is the straw that breaks the camel’s back for me. It is the fact that the Rose Bowl moment was the previous tour stop before Soldier Field (i.e. when the ‘rain convo’ took place). Up until that point JK and Jimin definitely had a lot of touchy moments on stage but none were so controversial as JK actually shoving Jimin’s ear down his gullet. Even in the behind-the-scenes footage and while they were on stage the members seemed to kind of look at them like:

When I consider the grander context and consider Item #4, Item’s 1-3 become hard to write off for me. There are parts of that conversation that don’t even refer to rain and just flat out go in on Jimin and Jungkook (in a funny/loving way) for ??? being too powerful in their performances I guess? Idk that point was very weird to me given that they’re not the only 2 that go hard... Just seems weird to call them out specifically and have it come from J-Hope himself who usually goes the hardest on stage... And later on in the episode, J-Hope freely admits that he’s not even worried about dancing on the wet stage so like??? What was the point in even having that scene where y’all call out Jimin and JK if it’s not even that big of a deal? Again, I can write this off as the producers/directors/editors needing to manufacture drama and adversity for bts but it just doesn’t make that much sense to me.

Now, for what I think happened it’s honestly just a strong opinion. I hate getting analytical (which I’ve done this whole post) but the nature of what I think happened requires me to do so. I think this was double-speak where J-Hope, RM, and Jin were taking advantage of the rain conversation to actually admonish Jimin and JK for the stage antics and kind of advise them to tone it down. Up until that point they had just been doing more and more wild shit, and after that point it was slightly less wild until they went on vacation. When I consider all of these things, I really can’t shake the idea that that conversation was very revealing to me in showing that 1. Jimin and JK may actually be a thing, 2. the members have some knowledge about it, and 3. there was likely some apprehension at that time surrounding the Rose Bowl moment.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think anyone is trying to “hide” them at all, I just think there was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction that was more worried for them than anything. Either way, this scene helps the case for me that JK & Jimin are actually a thing. 

[dedicatedfollower467]

openbound part 3

and then i never have to play through this goddamn game again (until i do another re-read, as i inevitably will...)

at least this is my favorite part of openbound!

oh right, this whole bit where people frequently mistake who’s who in the horuss/rufioh to dirk/jake parallel. cuz lemme tell ya... rufioh ain’t jake. should have been obvious what with the “he kissed my disembodied head back to life while standing on a mountain striking a badass pose”

i know horuss and dirk have a lot in common in terms of interests, but optimistic duelist is right that when you look at actual personality and behavior, jake has a lot more in common.

(now, whether dirk and rufioh actually have all that much in common, personality wise, is a different question. i think the truthful answer is no, not really, if only because dirk actually has the balls to break it off with jake when he feels like the relationship isn’t working anymore)

(although considering everybody except the stubborn as fuck badass girl hits on him and he’s uncomfortable with the attention, maybe he is a bit like dirk)

(i mean. frankly both of them have parallels to both of them and tbqh it’s probably just foreshadowing that the dirkjake sitch just ain’t gonna work out for either of them)

“he stole my breath away” sfaskadsfjhjaljadshfadskjadsfhjadsf fucking classpect puns

I FUCKING HATE KANKrI.

SHUT. THE FUCK. UP. BIIIIIIITCH!!!!!

he is so much worse this time around than he’s ever been before. mostly because now he seems less like a misguided sjw and more like a deliberate asshole saying things to mock and parody in bad faith.

because. y’know. technically he is.

“if you are faced with any crisis of identity whatsoever, it’s really important to do your best to manufacture esoteric features of your personality and believe in them very STrONGLY and tell people about those things as frequently as possible” aka THE MOST ANNOYING FUCKING THING ABOUT PAGES, WHICH APPLIES TO ALL FUCKING PAGES and also the reason i really, desperately hope poor tavvy crocker isn’t a page.

“they always wanted to be w1th me or... maybe even wanted to BE me?” this is really interesting in light of roxy’s pesterquest route where they imply that maybe their attraction to dirk was a misplaced gender identity thing where they couldn’t tell if they wanted to be him or be with him.

maybe it’s less about personality commonalities and more about interpersonal communication issue commonalities?

(or maybe they’re just both both. y’know.)

god i love damara. she’s so fucking funny. terrible person, but hilarious, since i can’t understand any of what she’s saying and literally have to guess based on context... i mean i could look up the translations but that just wouldn’t be as much fun....

god rose’s pouty face when she asks if kanaya is permanently de-glowed is SO ADOrABLE.

dave: kanaya we should talk more we really don’t talk enough YES DAVE I AGrEE!

“storytime with karkat: kanaya edition” I FUCKING LOVE DAVE AND KArKAT’S rELATIONSHIP IN ANY AND EVErY TIMELINE.

kanaya is so goddamn sassy i love her so much. why are there so many amazing characters in homestuck i can’t handle it.

god i love rose. i love everyone.

“i just know that on some hypothetical earth my shit is starting to get so lame” lmaoooooooo

but also... is that the tiniest hint of fourth wall awareness poking through? is this why he can tell ultimate dirk to fuck off in meat?

oh. oh dave’s doing a lot of sudden capitalization in this conversation, this makes me very happy. because it either means he’s picking up karkat habits, or he’s literally talking loudly, and either way that’s adorable character growth.

“the traditional mumbling monologue stage of Striderian discourse” nah, it’s not striderian, it’s just dave-and-roxian. like parent like child.

dave: maybe i’ll dream up my own john tonight

rose: lmao GAYYYYYYYYYYY

dave: fu

god i love the music in this game, rose’s and dave’s theme songs are SO GOOD.

“suddenly sigmund freud and king oedipus start banging each others hot moms at some kind of depraved sexy momswap party” DAVE.

“(still feel like i should work puppets into this. no idea why.)” oh dave has definitely spent too long under the plush thumb of lil cal/lord english.

I FUCKING LOVE KArKAT GETTING ALL ANNOYED AND PHILOSOPHICAL ABOUT SLEEPING KArKAT DrEAM BUBBLE SHENANIGANS.

TOUCH ME DAVE IT’S FOr SCIENCE.

“our conversations can be so embarrassing im glad we manage to have most of them in private” AKA DAVE AND KArKAT WErE ALrEADY GETTING CHUMMY EVEN IN THE PrE-rETCON TIMELINE!!!! probs just friends tho because karkat wouldn’t cheat on gamzee even though gamzees a fucker, and dave probably wasn’t ready to deal with the toxic masculinity and internalized homophobia yet.

“meenah was right that making them more aggressive would work better and the alternians proved it!” wrong, serket, the alternians won because karkat was working tirelessly to ensure they didn’t all fucking backstab each other, the players who won the game fastest were the beta kids, who LITErALLY NEVEr FOUGHT WITH EACH OTHEr, EVEr, NOT EVEN ONCE, NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT. FUCK YOU.

annnnnnd that’s openbound finished! thank god. i think that’s where i’ll stop tonight, jesus this game is long.

page: 5399

[rwby-rants-and-theories]

You know with all the inconstancy RWBY has by v4 about aura, semblances, dust, kingdoms(because suddenly Mistral that even in art from previous season looked different and was coded different) and humanity origin stories, it just seems like 'listen people, we give you an open world book with different paths. take whichever you want and have fun with it, toodaloo'. Like1/2

really as a writer my reaction was ‘so um…I can just take whatever I want and create my own sub world in it because it seems to be just as canon as whatever they create?’ because really it just seems they write the story and make up things as they go and just add EUREKA(s) that they came up with, completely disregarding whenever it contradicts established things or not.

You know, this whole spiel reminds me of that one thing David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said about making Dany and Tyrion meet in GoT Season 5.

What was it again? “Creatively it made sense to us, because we wanted it to happen”? 

LOL, mediocre writer logic at its finest. Just make things happen not because they make sense, but simply because you want them to happen. 

And before anyone says “What about fan fiction, Daniel? Are you attacking fan fiction writers? They write about things that aren’t canon so are you saying fan fiction writers are dumb and selfish?”

Let me fucking tell you that good writing and bad writing still exist in fan fiction. Crap decisions and missteps about a narrative path can very much happen if you don’t have intelligent, coherent, consistent, and appropriate reasons for something to happen.

“I want Ruby and Weiss on a fluffy coffee shop AU” is a much more different creative direction than “I want Ruby and Weiss to meet and fall in love in Vacuo but only after Raven has captured Ruby in a Mistrali circus, killed Adam Taurus in Kuroyuri, and then taken her to Menagerie which is now a principality of Atlas to find a Relic that somehow reveals Qrow is actually Ruby’s dad, Salem is Summer, and Cinder is her sister.”

See how the latter makes absolutely no fucking sense? See how there is no reason for any of that to happen just for Weiss and Ruby to fall in love? The former makes sense because it’s a common and widely-accepted romance set-up that’s isn’t complicated to manufacture. It’s predictable and easy to follow. It cannot possibly go wrong unless you add unnecessary drama and add things that are nonsensical every other chapter and never find ways to build Ruby and Weiss’s relationship in your story. Barely any world-building is necessary, if at all, because coffee shop AU’s are minuscule in scale. 

Even “pick your own adventure” interactive stories (Goosebumps, Fate/stay night, Mass Effect, etc.) have established narratives and rules and specific conditions that’ll lead the reader/player to the different routes they can take. Things just don’t pile up. There are specific, logical reasons why a major event takes place or why characters behave like they do. 

You know, what bothers me a bit about RWBY, ok more than a bit is this. They coded Mistral as Mediterranean(ish) kind of place. First the name of a wind that blows through france and Mediterranean. 

Then we have the name of the landmass it’s on-Anima which is Latin for soul and again Latin….Roman empire Mediterraneanthe first grade combat school is called Sanctum which again is in Latin and means ‘that which is holy’ or scared.

heck even the names of the most important places together. Anima, Sanctum, Heaven give a bit of connotation to Christianityand some characters we knew from vol.1-2 hailing from there have Roman/Greek names and allude to mythology of those countries. 

Pyrrha is Achilles and Neptune is god of the sea. and even the visuals. In Qrow’s story the village and the inn do not have Asian look, the houses do not look the way they do in Kuroyuri for example and neither does the interior. 

now maybe his story was fake but like why would he make up in his own mind how the village looked like if it looked differently? surely even if he tells the visual to girls the kingdoms have like TV and CCT and exchange students I think people would how architecture there looks like it looks confusing and a bit…well hypocritical.

They are against racism but are fine with working with such people. and even after we find out they had been blackmailed and maybe, maybe it would go some sensible way?

they take part in taking down Beacon, not caring for fellow faunus and the guy who leads them who for audience is the face of this organisation turns out to be a creepy, obsessive homicidal maniac who is bend on destroying life of his ex for leaving him and is totally ok with everything that is going on and has been going on, which is in contrast with what has been shown in flashback about blackmail

and now in season four we meet further WF members who are unafraid of attacking and killing other faunus simply for not being part of their group or having different approach to things. and there is this line with Salem assuring that Sienna-the current leader- will be as loyal as Adam. so bascially where this ONLY EQUAL RIGTHS ORGANISATION FOR OPRESSED RACE is goingwould maybe change their racist views, which has…worked so well in the past that it changed very little for the 80 years or so it has been practised.

 and like it rubs me the wrong way, because it seems like with Mistral chaining over season it’s like writers are patting themselves on the back 'we made Asian kingdom! our show is sooo progressive, racism is over’ idk

Before I get into the rest of this, there’s one misunderstanding we gotta clear out.

It’s not “Heaven Academy”, it’s “Haven Academy”. The names of the Academies are not linked to Christianity, they’re linked to a motif of protection, hope, and safe places. The continents do not receive this treatment and therefore are part of a different naming category.

Now, as for Mistral’s depiction in Volume 3 compared to Volume 4…

…yeah. It seems as if Mistral in Qrow’s flashback is European-coded. Mistral in “No Safe Haven” and the rest of Volume 4 is most definitely Asian-coded.

This is a bit of a longshot and most likely wrong but it cooooouuuuuld be that Mistral is a bit of a melting pot and has different districts made up from members of different cultures (like American and Canadian cities have Chinatowns). Qrow might have happened to wander into a European-coded (Vale, maybe?) settlement of Mistral rather than gone deeper. But by the looks of Mistral in the bottom picture, that might be a null point.

We’re never gonna stop talking about how trash the whole White Fang plotline is, are we?

I don’t like where this arc is going. I like the idea of Blake taking over the White Fang because it 100% makes sense and I totally fucking called it and is the only sensitive direction her plot can go but I HATE how the rest is being handled with a passion. 

It’s just bad how the CRWBY is tackling issues of social justice and representation. It makes me sick because it’s one of the most tone-deaf adaptations of real-world oppression dynamics I’ve ever seen. The discourse behind it is endless and riddled with prejudiced trash. I’d link to specific examples but it’s not like they’re hard to find (and also because coming close to those discussions makes me fume with anger).

Rooster Teeth might think they’re progressive. Their writing says otherwise. You’re not progressive simply because you think racism is wrong or that sexual and gender diversity is awesome. You’re progressive when you actively engage in learning about diversity and unlearning discriminatory culture and applying that knowledge to the things you make.

[evilelitest2]

100 Days of Trump Day 47: The Jimquisition

Welcome back to 100 Days of Trump, where I try to use 100 works to understand WTF happened in 2016.  And at first glance a lot of you are going to be confused by my choice, cause i’m recommending a video game channel that talks primarily about video games....how does that relate to Trump?  Well I’ve always said that the way to understand Trump is to look at the gaming industry, because a lot of what happens there applies to the larger political world, specifically in regards to corporations.  We live in a corporate dominated world, they wield a tremendous amount of influence over every aspect of our lives and there isn’t really a clear guideline to how to respond to it.  Everywhere we look we see corporate narratives justifying or advocating its own interests, and far more than governments, these massive private organizations can seem really hard to understand, after all we mostly relate too them in term of products, so how can we get into their head space, particularly when they are so involved in politics so their head space is vitally important to us. 

    Enter Jim Sterling or Jim Fucking Sterling Son to his friends, a neurotic, egotistical, kitch addicted video game vlogger with terrible taste in games.  Let me make something clear first, I think Jim Sterling is a really shitty Game reviewer, generally speaking if he likes a game, there is a 50% chance it will be awful, and he is the most tacky human being on the planet.  He also insists on filling his reviews with a bunch of nonsense stories and narratives in his videos (generally speaking if you want to avoid them skip until the gaming footage begins).  He is also an absolute goddamn genius when it comes to the economic side of gaming and how to get properly respond in a corporate world.  See, gaming as an industry is like a microcosm for America, the massive publishers corporations wield almost all of the power, the insider information about games is strictly guarded, the news organization around games are almost entirely subordinate to publishers, and the gaming community as a whole is constantly being shamed for having any degree of consumer advocacy.  A sensation that most gamers have and I imagine this applies to most of us, is this sense of niggling guilt for not wanting to give extra money to a company because you happen to like the product they provide.  That is where Jim Sterling comes in 

  Basically his show just looks at various business practices done by companies and calls them out on being greedy bastards who treat the consumers like cattle. And if the show was just that, it would in my view be enough because we need more people coming to say that consumers have a right to be protected, but it gets more interesting.  Because over time, Jim kinda comes to understand the companies psychology, he is like a corporation whisperer.  And (stop me if this sounds familiar) he also keeps running into issues with gamers furious at the way they are treating, but so utterly docicle to the corporate gaming machine that they can’t bring themselves to condem the companies, finding excuses for every example of bad behavior, usually directed at feminists or minorities as a scapegoat.  Because its much easier to attack women for the problems in gaming, they can’t fight back as well as EA or Activation could.  Sort of like how...working class whites are blaming refugees rather than the wealthy for their worsening economic conditions?    I’ve said it before, understanding Gamergate is necessary for understanding Trump, and Gamergate is only possible in the toxic corporate atmosphere that was already part of gaming.  There is an old joke about Gamers being pissed off all the time but a large part of that is that they are constantly under attack in their own hobby by the people make it, but because you know.....Nerd culture, they take that misdirected rage and turn it on much weaker targets, rather than target the people actually responsible, because fan loyalty is breed into these people.   

    Now i know what a lot of you are thinking “EE, this guy is a buffoon, he is a clown, why should I take anything he says seriously”?  Well ladies and gentlemen, let me present his most brilliant contribution to our world, the copyright deadlock, which anybody who was worked with youtube should understand the genius of this.  

Now this Jim updates once a week and there are hundreds of episodes, and since tumblr only allows me to embed 5 videos cause bullshit, so I am going to just show off five videos that highlight  some of the topics he talks about which apply to the America that made Trump possibly

Number One:Corporate Apologists

Let me give an example, we have all heard corporate stooges go “Oh well companies exist to make money” as a way to excuse shitty behavior, here is an excellent rebuttal that works both in the gaming world and outside.  Skip to 0:46 to get the actual content, it starts with an inside joke about pooping.

Number Two: Sexism in the Games industry

If you are remotely aware of the discourse towards feminism on the internet particularly in regards to media, you must have heard the old refrain about how “Well men in media are all musclebound and shit, so why do women bitch when they are all in skimpy outfits?”  Well here is one of the best response videos explaining the difference 

Follow up videos   

How Gamers don’t understand that you can like something and still recognize problematic elements.  

    Gamers really think if you say something is sexist, that means you are going to take their game away and how totally anise that attitude is.  That inability to think complexity, that inability to say “Wow, I really like The Wire but it doesn’t treat its female characters all that well” is a huge problem here, because they take any criticism as invalidating the whole game.  

   How having a discussion about diversity in Games isn’t the end of the world

    A huge part of the reactionary movement currently gripping the country is the sense that we shouldn’t be even talking about sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, xenophobia, and ablism (which I put last because nobody wants to have a discussion about that), that even acknowledging the discussion is admitting a defeat to them, because its like what was discussed in the Angry Jack Videos, it is psychologically important to them that their isn’t a problem, otherwise they have to admit to being complicit at least in their minds.  

Why corporation’s own self fulfilling prophesies lead to less female characters 

You’ve likely heard the claim that female protagonists make less money than male ones so we can’t blame companies for not including them, but if you take a closer look, that just isn’t true.  When ever video game designers try to make a female protagonists, they are just told “you can’t have a female protagonist” but there isn’t any actual data to support this choice, everybody just believes it blindly.   Bioshock Infinite is pretty sexist and shit though

    The bizarre “Fake Nerd Girl” myth and how self serving it is

   Jim Sterling assumes for the sake of argument that Fake Nerd Girls actually exists, and then asks “So what?”  

   The fanbase’s weird response to the inclusion of GSM relationships 

Jim is either Bi or Pansexual and he talks about how when any GSM relationship is included into a game there is some segment of the fanbase who freak the fuck out...over an optional bit of content they don't have to play that doesn’t effect them.  This should sound familiar. 

   The total insanity of Gamer’s response to Anita Sarkeesian

Just his take on the whole affair and how completely over the top the response to Anita is, particularly how any legitimate criticism you might have of her is drowned out among all the insanity and rape threats.  

    Why the Default Straight Male Protagonist is easily avoidable 

Diversity isn’t just nice, it is also actually good for the industry as a whole.  

    How companies will excuse lack of female protagonists in Bullshit Ways 

  When ever companies say “We can’t include women in our games cause money” it is lying.  Follow up here 

   Manufactured Controversies 

   This should sound familiar to all of us by now.  

 Number 3: Liking the Product, Hating the Company 

Link here

There is a problem in gaming, and otherwise where you really like a product provided by a company (Games, movies, food etc), but hate other things about the company, and you are constantly being told that if you condemn the companice’s practices, you are also hurting the thing you love.  In particular, the notion of people Whining or are entitled for wanting some basic respect should sound very familiar to people.  

Follow Up Videos 

How Publishers really do put their interest before that of the players

This episode is interesting because Gamergate totally co-opted his rhetoric here and aimed it at...feminists of all people

   How because of the corporate structure itself means even good ideas will be ruined

    Jim Sterling liked the notion of DLC and Free to Play as a new business model, but because of the entire way corporations work, the whole idea is destroyed.  

Why a blindly pro corporate policy actually hurts the market as a whole 

I find it hilarious how so called capitalists get behind monopolies, aka the very thing capitalism was invented to oppose.  

  If you care about the the medium, you should be mad at the companies

Number 4: Why corporations aren’t actually all that bright.

We like to imagine corporations as these brilliant evil geniuses, but they are in fact mostly just incompetent, not so much captains of industry, but instead utter morons.  And their desire to make all of their products as safe as possible isn’t just horrible for the consumer, its bad for us as well.  

Why Polls aren’t absolute 

   This also applies to Hillary Clinton, polls aren’t objective fact.  

  The Games Industry love of Secrecy backfires on it

  Even if something isn’t racist, the game’s industry reluctance to give out information makes it perfectly reasonable for people to assume so.  

Market Stagnation is the inevitable result of corporation leadership structure

Number 5: Don’t fall for their Tricks 

Same behavior, different label. 

A company will often realize that people are angry at something so just rename it but keep it the same 

Never believe a companies apology Part 1 and Part 2

Companies lose nothing by an apology, if they don’t change their behavior don’t give it any value (also applies to politicians) 

Companies don’t understand how Prices work

   Companies are so greedy and cowardly, they actually screw themselves over.

  Hype Culture is inevitably bad

 Hype Culture always backfires because when you build up the hype, people get disappointed, but of course it also makes money, so companies try to direct that rage at an easier target.  

Also I want to leave on a last note here, because Jim Sterling actually does talk about corruption in Games Journalism....and isn’t a sexist.  If Gamergate was actually about journalism, then Sterling would be leading the charge, not dismissing it Part 1 Part 2

Basically what i’m saying here is, Jim Sterling 2020

Finally I will leave you on this, how you should get angry at a company and how you shouldn’t. So much of the Trump/Brexit movement was people legitimately pissed off at something aiming it at people who weren’t responsible.  

[theleftpill]

I'm not sure why I keep turning to your blog but you seem like a reasonable person so here I am again. The truth is, I'm feeling very lost. I wouldn't call myself a tjlc'er because I don't want to be associated with the core group. I don't go after other ships, I stay clear of discourse etc but I managed to convince myself that johnlock was going to happen. I don't know exactly when this shift between shipping johnlock and believing in it wholeheartedly occurred but it did. The fandom - or at +

I am cackling with glee over the Wank Pack’s flailings and drinking their tears with gusto but it’s you, dear Anon, and others like you, who number far far greater than the Wankers, who I feel for and get angry and frustrated for and I mean my heart breaks a little, honestly, reading your ask.  I’m so sorry you’re feeling so lost and hurt right now.  It’s an awful place to be in.  Especially since the whole thing has been manufactured by a “chosen” few - not jlock, which is a great ship, and not even t*lc, which as a theory and a fan exercise could have been a lot of fun and harmless - but this strident insistence that it was the only framework that the show could exist in and that it was the only endgame.  Because it just isn’t true.

You have no reason to feel ashamed for believing in tjlc.  You found something that resonated with you, that you felt strongly about, that you were able to connect with other people through, which put a smile on your face and made you happy, yes?  There’s no reason to feel ashamed by that.  The only reason you would have to feel ashamed is if you attacked other people for “not believing,” for being “casuals”, for shipping other pairings.  If you engaged in anything like that, now would be a good time to send some apologies.  That will help not just them but also you.  Make up for the shitty things.  You’ll mend some hurt feelings and feel more in control of your situation. 

Then remind yourself and keep remembering that the only people who should feel ashamed about this whole mess are the ones who started attacking others, who sent harassment and abuse to other fans, who sent harassment and abuse to the creators and actors and the BBC, who continue to do that, who continue to insist that they’re right and to “keep believing” and to brainwash and gaslight others into staying with the Conspiracy.  Those are the people who need to be ashamed.  If that’s not you, then you don’t take responsibility.  If that is you, then *stop.*

Yes, the core is louder and angrier and more determined than anyone else in that branch right now - they always have been.  But it is possible to take back your control from them.  Shut them out.  Unfollow them and anyone who reblogs them.  If you’re unfollowing a friend, tell them why so they understand.  Block freely and with gusto.  Clear your dash.  Don’t go into the tags.  My tumblr friends are always commenting on the hate they see on their dash; I never see it.  Because I’m careful of who I follow and who I interact with.  When you find a healthier space in tumblr, spread the word to others who feel the same way as you.  It is possible to enjoy tumblr without engaging in the ugly side.  It takes work but you can do it.

I think that right now, since you’re really feeling hurt, the next best course of action is to step back from Sherlock and the fandom; to what degree is up to you.  The episodes have aired, there’s not going to be a fourth.  The narrative that’s been presented is not going to change.  Accept that first.  Then you decide how to enjoy the show and fandom:  Do you continue to enjoy the show with a shifted pov?  Do you continue to enjoy the show believing in jlock, which of course can be done and is completely valid for yourself?  Do you ignore S4?  Do you withdraw from the people you find toxic and clear your dash of the petitions and revenge and aggression?  Do you maybe find the others who are like you - want to believe but don’t want to be involved with the hate?  Do you find entirely new groups of fans and new ships?  Do you withdraw from tumblr completely?  Do you walk away from the show entirely?  All of these options are possible, but you’re the only one who knows what’s best for you. 

I’m so sorry you’re in such a bad place.  It never should have gotten this far.  I am glad that you feel you can come to my blog and to me; you can always turn to me if it helps.  I might not always be the quickest responder but I am always happy to connect with fans and friends who might need a shoulder.  Find others like me.  They’re out there.  Surround yourself with the good stuff.  Watch the episodes you love the best and enjoy the good parts.  Maybe start to see new things to love about them.  Sherlock is an amazing show, for all its faults.  Find something entirely new to drift into - a new show, a new hobby, something other than television, whatever you need to fill that gap.

Good luck, and let me know how you’re doing.  I wish you the best.

[hub-pub-bub]

Maybe you just want to write a book and get it into people’s hands, but there are more dangers out there than you might realize.

To set the stage, I’ll go back to a recent event: the Amélie Wen Zhao controversy. You could be forgiven for not having heard about it, given that it’s only a big deal if you closely follow the world of young adult novels, and in particular the young adult communities on Twitter and Tumblr. I’ll do my best to summarize what happened.

Zhao is a young woman, born in Beijing, raised in Paris, educated in New York City and currently living there. She scored a 6-figure book deal with Delacorte Press, the first book of which was to be Blood Heir. Some reviewers got advance review copies. Then, a couple of things happened: Twitter user @LegallyPaige posted a tweet (since deleted) accusing Zhao of taking screenshots of tweets made by people who disliked her or her book, and of stalking and possibly harassing critics; marketing descriptions of the book, as well as tweets by advance reviewers like Ellen Oh, suggested that the book was racially insensitive as it focuses on an indentured servitude system with parallels to American slavery. There were also accusations of anti-blackness based on the treatment of a character who was racially ambiguous, at best, as well as talk of plagiarism that, as far as anyone who has read the book can tell, are not really credible.

Again, if you don’t run in these circles this might all sound like a pretty minor controversy–a mild storm that Zhao could easily weather. But YA Twitter doesn’t work that way. It is a microcosm of Twitter as a whole, dominated by clout-chasing “influencers” and full of cliques who follow what their preferred influencers say. If a book is presumed to be problematic, or the author presumed to be bad, it is a small matter to organize mass review-bombing on Goodreads, Amazon, or anywhere else one can have a say. If you speak out on behalf of someone accused in this way, you are inviting legions of opposing followers to come after you. The old adage is true: the only way to win is not to play the game.

Zhao herself chose not to play the game, as well. She wrote a thoughtful apology letter in which she announced the cancellation (or at least postponement) of Blood Heir. I’m not here to take issue with that decision, as it is a highly personal one. My purpose is to critique these cycles more generally.

All cards on the table: I’m a white man. I consider myself anti-racist as well as a feminist. I recognize the vast structural oppression that exist essentially everywhere, as well as the specific history of anti-black racism in the US. I am always on the side of social justice, which is why I think it’s necessary to call out the excesses of such movements.

For perspective, of course, in this case nobody died, nobody lost their livelihood. Zhao’s publisher stands by her and she will likely publish other books, and possibly Blood Heir itself after some revisions. What happened to her isn’t censorship, nor even what I would consider abusive. It’s more unfortunate than anything else.

What is concerning to me is the tendency to manifest an online mob on an extremely thin basis, and that the people who have large enough followings to spark these controversies know the power they wield, and don’t seem to have much sense of responsibility about it. Consider that this particular incident was sparked by an essentially anonymous accusation of screenshotting–an activity which is petty, at worst–and spiraled into allegations of racism.

As a writer, I do think it is very important to be sensitive to the issues of the world around me. It is entirely possible, even likely, to fall into unintentional racism or sexism. The best of intentions do not necessarily lead to a piece of writing that is free from the biases and inequities of our world. It is important to write mindfully, and to be careful not to reproduce oppressive cultural messages. This can take many forms, though. Some people object to depictions of racism, violence against women, and other horrors in the first place. Even if the purpose of portraying them is to critique them and make clear how awful those things are, there are readers who would rather not encounter such material in the first place. It is an understandable position to not want to read something like that, as it can mean having to face bigotry in fiction that you get enough of in your daily life. People who don’t want to read books like that are absolutely welcome not to!

Where I take issue is the idea that because someone doesn’t like a particular book, no one should be allowed to read it–that it should be withdrawn altogether. The comparisons to historically ineffective book bans apply pretty well here. In addition, it just seems like a big waste of energy. In a country where Donald Trump is President and is actively enabling literal Nazis to march in the streets and kill people, spending a lot of energy attacking a book that may not have anything all that wrong with it seems totally absurd. Yes, people can care about more than one thing at a time–but time and energy are finite resources.

I used the phrase “manufactured outrage” in the title, and that was with good reason. I have been around long enough to know that most of the time, these controversies are not drummed up out of a genuine concern for people who have been harmed, but to raise one’s own profile, and to demonstrate power as an influencer. (Note that all you really need to be an “influencer” is a lot of social media followers!) The emergence of the “#MeToo” movement, which has achieved some real accomplishments in terms of dislodging sexual predators from positions of power, has also put wind in the sails of online controversy-seekers. Everyone wants to be first in line to “cancel” the next “problematic” public figure. A writer faced with such a backlash might be inclined to simply ride it out, and hope the furor dies down after a few days. It usually does, but there is another problem: media coverage.

Only 15% of Americans actually use Twitter, and an even smaller share of those use it regularly. It would not have much influence over public debate except for one thing: it is massively popular among journalists and freelance writers, almost all of whom have column space to fill. Going out and investigating is difficult and expensive; mining Twitter for the latest clickbait topic, by comparison, is easy and free. Thus, these relatively tiny kerfuffles (consisting of a few hundred or a few thousand people, at most) get elevated to the level of national or even international discourse. Dozens of articles get written about online scuffles involving handfuls of people, and you’d think there was a real crisis brewing. The reality is just that journalists and freelancers tend to be Extremely Online (to use the Twitter jargon) and know that drama pulls clicks. This is a big part of the “manufacturing” of the outrage. We’re generally not talking about mass movements, here. “#MeToo” is a mass movement. “#Cancel[WriterOfTheWeek]” isn’t.

Another part of the “manufacturing” is that these outrages often emerge from circles that are not just insincere, but actively malevolent. Imageboard site 4chan and *chan sites of similar formats have forums where the entire point is identifying targets and organizing social media outrage against them. They tap into social justice circles and plant whisper campaigns that a particular person is problematic in some severe way–maybe the target is a sexual predator, or plagiarized parts of their book. If this can get picked up by a prominent influencer, the mob does the rest. Likewise, infighting is fomented by inventing wedge issues, a couple recent examples being “Santa shouldn’t be a man” and “pedophiles belong in the LGBT+ umbrella.” Yes, those are real things stirred up by bad actors and I did not make them up.

The point of all this is that it can be easy and exciting to focus on drama, to be an active participant in fomenting it. It might even feel good to play a role in getting someone to pay penance for their perceived wrongdoing. But it’s hard to say that any of it makes the world a better place, or actually serves any of the causes social justice is meant to. In Zhao’s case, one would think that her identity as an immigrant, a woman, and a person of color would bless her with the benefit of the doubt–but those things are instead liabilities, as she is held to a much higher standard than, say, the middle-aged white men who churn out sexist drivel every year.

A common piece of writing advice is to simply ignore critics. Critics will always find something to hate–it is essentially their job. That’s still true, to a great extent. It is sometimes necessary to publicly respond to criticism, but the best way to handle that is to take the high road. Let people know that they are heard and you are taking their advice into consideration–and then, decide for yourself what that means, and how it should change your work, if at all.

If you write a book condemning injustice, and people attack you and say you aren’t condemning it correctly, odds are there’s not actually anything wrong with your book–just the people doing the attacking.

Post written by J. D. Huffman so direct all fanmail to him <3

[leoxrobertson]

I Don’t Know 3: Camus’ The Fall

Having read the fall thrice now (it’s tiny, dense and confusing) I’m pretty confident to say that it is a novel that discusses the silent hypocrisies on which society founds itself. The narrative is delivered in the form of a long monologue from Jean-Baptiste Clamence, a once-revered lawyer, fallen from grace. As a result of “the fall”, Clamence is painfully aware of the hypocrisies of his former existence, and is filled with stories and analogies to deconstruct them: they are wonderfully dark and never without their share of humour, which makes the novel just as daring and illuminating when read today.

On our deceptive appearances

“I once knew a manufacturer who had a perfect wife, admired by all, and yet he deceived her. That man was literally furious to be in the wrong, to be blocked from receiving, or granting himself, a certificate of virtue. The more virtues his wife manifested, the more vexed he became. Eventually, living in the wrong became unbearable to him. What do you think he did then? He gave up deceiving her? Not at all. He killed her. That is how I entered into relations with him.” Jean-Baptiste enters relations with a man because the man killed his own wife out of frustration for his own lack of virtuosity. J-B holds an unwavering admiration for those who decry their own hypocrisies. J-B goes on to say “I had no chance of killing my wife, being a bachelor.” He believes that only not having a wife guarantees you won’t kill your wife, not any kind of self-restraint or good character: as explained later, J-B believes that we live in a constant grey area of morality that we can choose to navigate across whenever, but that we love to deny this. As a result, he shows, on more than one occasion, admiration for even the basest people whose appearance reflects their character. “You think he looks like a killer? Rest assured that his actions conform to his looks.”

“You are in business, no doubt? In a way? Excellent reply! Judicious too: in all things we are merely “in a way.” Now, allow me to play the detective. You are my age in a way, with the sophisticated eye of the man in his forties who has seen everything, in a way; you are well dressed in a way, that is as people are in our country; and your hands are smooth. Hence a bourgeois, in a way!” Everyone is only something “in a way.” Civilisation is preserved with categories. Everyone is in fact a little of everything, undefinable and uncategorisable, forever evolving.

“We are all exceptional cases. We all want to appeal against something! Each of us insists on being innocent at all cost, even if he has to accuse the whole human race and heaven itself. You won’t delight a man by complimenting him on the efforts by which he has become intelligent or generous. On the other hand, he will beam if you admire his natural generosity. Inversely, if you tell a criminal that his crime is not due to his nature or his character but to unfortunate circumstances, he will be extravagantly grateful to you.” J-B believes that we hate to acknowledge the effort that goes into moving us across the moral spectrum: we are too scared to think of its existence, that we may lack virtuosity and have to go about remedying that. If we appear to be good, we must be inherently good; if we appear to be bad, our circumstances must simply be inescapably unfortunate.

On relationships

“I used to put [women] in the refrigerator, so to speak.” [Digression] In the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode “The D.E.N.N.I.S System”, Dennis reveals his system for picking up women that allows him to sleep with them and leave them, yet pick them up again whenever he wants to. The actor has said that Dennis is the embodiment of his own worst behaviour, attitudes and habits. [End digression.] “No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures”, says Jean-Baptiste.

“The moment I was loved and my partner again forgotten, I shone, I was at the top of my form, I became likable. Be it said, moreover, that as soon as I had re-won that affection I became aware of its weight. In my moments of irritation I told myself that the ideal solution would have been the death of the person I was interested in. Her death would, on the one hand, have definitively fixed our relationship and, on the other, removed its compulsion. But one cannot long for the death of everyone or, in the extreme, depopulate the planet in order to enjoy a freedom that cannot be imagined otherwise. My sensibility was opposed to this, and my love of mankind.” Only “the death of the person [we are] interested in” will cement in place the constant flux of our interactions and re-evaluations of each other and what we want- this can indeed become unbearable at times.

“I am well aware that one can’t get along without domineering or being served. Every man needs slaves as he needs fresh air… The lowest man in the social scale still has his wife or his child. If he’s unmarried, a dog. The essential thing, after all, is being able to get angry with someone who has no right to talk back… Somebody has to have the last word. Otherwise, every reason can be answered with another one and there would never be an end to it.” Oppression is a necessary tool to cut short constant discourse and the flux of life’s ambiguity. Eventually we need to decide right and wrong to move forward, even although it has been explained that this is not really possible.

On life’s constant flux

J-B recounts an incident where he hears a woman falling into the water, perhaps to her doom (perhaps mirroring the ambiguity of Ophelia’s death in Hamlet? Did Ophelia try to drown herself, or did she just fall?) “I had already gone some fifty yards when I heard the sound—which, despite the distance, seemed dreadfully loud in the midnight silence—of a body striking the water. I stopped short, but without turning around. Almost at once I heard a cry, repeated several times, which was going downstream; then it suddenly ceased. The silence that followed, as the night suddenly stood still, seemed interminable. I wanted to run and yet didn’t stir. I was trembling, I believe from cold and shock. I told myself that I had to be quick and I felt an irresistible weakness steal over me. I have forgotten what I thought then. “Too late, too far …” or something of the sort. I was still listening as I stood motionless. Then, slowly under the rain, I went away. I informed no one… What? That woman? Oh, I don’t know. Really I don’t know. The next day, and the days following, I didn’t read the papers.”

J-B doesn’t know what happened to the girl. Other incidents mentioned in the novel allude to the notion that the conclusions he tries to draw from his own past rest on incomplete information. And, having informed no one about this incident, this besmirching of his character is not available for others to judge him upon. But what if the woman was okay? Or does it matter either way, given that he didn’t help? Did he really have any obligation? Maybe she wanted to fall in… This one event, a couple of confusing minutes one evening, demonstrates the incomplete informationwe have to go off when it comes to our judgement of others, or ourselves. There’s no possible way to follow up our impact on everyone we’ve met, nor is there any way for anyone to reach a definite conclusion about the impact we’ve had on them either- and even so, that impact evolves as we try to draw conclusions!

“If I had been able to commit suicide and then see [the] reaction [at the funeral], why, then the game would have been worth the candle.” If we were able to “cement in place” our relationships with others, to “finalise” our interactions with others, and see the effect it had, and how they added it all up, it would be worth it. But we cannot live and know the whole of our effect on the world at the same time, ever! The absurdity of existence, the unknowability. “In order to cease being a doubtful case, one has to cease being, that’s all.” Doubt is the order of our lives, flux and greyness, no true black and white, even if this is the artifice that holds us in place. Only death will end the absurd, but it’s not worth it either, because you’ll never hear your own final judgement. People from your life will happily crawl back out the woodwork to come to your funeral and apply labels to you that they came up with that are almost guaranteed not to capture who you really are. While we are alive, and not conceivably able to have the relief of everyone else around us dead (and thus all our relationships set in stone), the jury is constantly out on all of us, and so does our moral status fluctuate in unknowable ways.

Life is all middle, all confusion, with too much information in the air for us to make reasonable sense out of it: “a dead sea, or almost. With its flat shores, lost in the fog, there’s no saying where it begins or ends. So we are steaming along without any landmark; we can’t gauge our speed. We are making progress and yet nothing is changing. It’s not navigation but dreaming.”

Conclusion

In The Fall, Camus identifies and addresses a number of false truths that we assume to be true, and skilfully negates them using some wonderfully dark and daring stories and analogies. The consistent dark humour doesn’t “soften the blow” of these truths so much as affirm life in spite of them. Camus rallies for us to live honestly- right? Is that possible? Or do we live in a world so rife with hypocrisy and does civilisation need lies to survive? Uh…